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I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

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Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#451

Post by monksy »

CPLX wrote: post #401
monksy wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s too bad the legal system is so intimidating to people because more people doing this might one day wake companies up a little. That was Peter Thiel's conclusion after the Gawker ordeal. The reason why Gawker did what it did was that it was very difficult to succeed at suing them, and to survive while doing so. (Gawker would put the person suing them on an attack)

That scenario is literally the exact opposite scenario described here, where an incredibly wealthy and powerful business titan successfully intimidated and destroyed a much smaller and more poorly funded source of journalism because he felt like it. That, conceptually, is exactly the opposite of using small claims court to get justice from a giant faceless corporation. People like Peter Thiel have literally never bee…

> funded source of journalism because he felt like it.

"motivated to sue Gawker after they published a 2007 article publicly outing him, headlined "Peter Thiel is totally gay, people". Thiel stated that Gawker articles about others, including his friends, had "ruined people's lives for no reason," "

They publically outed him. They've gone after people who had tried to sue them before. Read the book Conspiracy. (0783118457)

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#452

Post by SamWhited »

strictnein wrote: post #54
SamWhited wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please look up information about Uber's business practices and don't use them. A few minor technical problems are nothing compared to how bad Uber is. Disclaimer: Austin resident who is still mad at both of them for all the massive lies they published all over the city and the huge amount of our money and time they wasted with their stupid campaign to not have to fingerprint drivers.

> "A few minor technical problems" If they're literally unable to use a service because of a glitch, it's not a "minor technical problem".

So? There are plenty of other alternatives anywhere.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#453

Post by SamWhited »

envy2 wrote: post #105
SamWhited wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please look up information about Uber's business practices and don't use them. A few minor technical problems are nothing compared to how bad Uber is. Disclaimer: Austin resident who is still mad at both of them for all the massive lies they published all over the city and the huge amount of our money and time they wasted with their stupid campaign to not have to fingerprint drivers.

As a consumer, I don't really care. I long ago realized that most big companies I do business with have probably done something sketchy in terms of lobbying / dodging regulation, whether they've gotten caught yet or not, and decided to stop losing sleep over it and just use the services that work best for me.

This isn't a single mistake, it's a pattern of bad behavior that's been going on for as long as they've been in business.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#454

Post by AnthonyMouse »

lolc wrote: post #393
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with centralized identification is that it doesn't actually solve anything, it only outsources it to a less security-competent entity which would be an even bigger target for fraud and corruption. Creating one single place to change your address gives the attacker one single place to change your address. Compromise one system, bribe one police officer or DMV employee, get nation-wide root access to everyt…

Well, fraud would still happen. The problem from the fraudsters point of view are manifold though: They have to actually deal with the police in person. Sending copies of identity documents by mail is not as involved as personally going to a police station. The risks are very different. Similarily, you can have corruption at phone carriers and credit-card companies too. What matters is the audit-chain. If a police of…

> Well, fraud would still happen. The problem from the fraudsters point of view are manifold though: They have to actually deal with the police in person. Sending copies of identity documents by mail is not as involved as personally going to a police station. The risks are very different.

Not really, because that isn't how fraud happens now, and nothing about that would change it.

People don't commonly commit fraud by going to a government office to get an ID issued in your name, they do it by waiting for you to do that and then stealing it from you or otherwise convincing you to give them the information they need to authenticate using it.

> Similarily, you can have corruption at phone carriers and credit-card companies too. What matters is the audit-chain. If a police officer keeps id-ing fraudsters they won't be in the job for long.

That's assuming the audit chain is both secure and less susceptible to corruption than the original system. Audit logs don't help if they're compromised by the people with privileged access. Or you nominally have individual accounts but in practice they're shared or not secured against compromise by privileged users.

And assuming that the corruption problem is specific identifiable people rather than a systemic issue where >=5% of police are corruptible so one getting caught only requires the fraudsters to use any of the thousands of others.

> That public servants are more corrupt and less competent than the corporate employees one depends on is not a universal experience. Not for me anyway.

The difference in this case isn't that the quality of the people is different, it's that the nature of the system is different. Whereas an individual company might have five employees with sensitive access, across an entire national government there would be a hundred thousand or more, so the attacker has a hundred thousand chances to find the lowest common denominator instead of five. And then when they succeed the scope of the vulnerability is not limited to that one company, it's universal.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#455

Post by magduf »

gusmd wrote: post #185
magduf wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went to western Europe (Germany specifically), and spend 15 Euros for phone service there. It's simple: I just bought a SIM card at a shop (O2) and put it in my Verizon phone. I got a prepaid card that had unlimited text/calls (within Germany only), and 3GB of data, which was far more than enough for my 2 weeks there. Cellular service is much cheaper in Europe than in the US, so you might as well take advantag…

The same 3 GB of data would have costed you $30 with Fi (or less if you were already near/over the 6 GB threshold). Given that 15 EUR is about 18 USD, you essentially saved 12 USD. Personally, I would have gladly paid $12 to not have to go to a store in foreign country, switch SIM cards, have to worry about hitting the 3 GB limit, lose the ability to call or text anyone in the states, etc. But to each, their own.

>The same 3 GB of data would have costed you $30 with Fi. Given that 15 EUR is about 18 USD, you essentially saved 12 USD.

First, EUR15 is about USD$17.25 for me, or it was when I was there. 1.2 is a lousy exchange rate.

Anyway, that quibble aside, saving $12 is more that worth it: having to use Fi at home would mean having to use the T-Mobile network, which in the US is absolutely horrible. I've used T-Mo in the past, as well as Sprint, and they're both lousy; they just don't have very good signal quality, especially if you get outside a major metro area.

>Personally, I would have gladly paid $12 to not have to go to a store in foreign country,

Personally, I would gladly pay $12/month to use a cellular network that doesn't suck in the US.

>have to worry about hitting the 3 GB limit

They have prepaid plans there with lots of different data allowances: 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, etc. Pick whatever works for you. I didn't come close to using my 3GB, and could have saved even more money by getting one of the smaller plans.

>lose the ability to call or text anyone in the states,

As I said before, I had no trouble using apps like LINE to do this, and was frequently sending texts and photos to people that way while I was walking around. If your friends are too stupid to use a messaging app instead of SMS, then I can't help you. SMS is the worst way of texting. But, to each their own.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#456

Post by magduf »

OxO4 wrote: post #299
magduf wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went to western Europe (Germany specifically), and spend 15 Euros for phone service there. It's simple: I just bought a SIM card at a shop (O2) and put it in my Verizon phone. I got a prepaid card that had unlimited text/calls (within Germany only), and 3GB of data, which was far more than enough for my 2 weeks there. Cellular service is much cheaper in Europe than in the US, so you might as well take advantag…

Note that this option may have some limitations depending on the country: Turkey blocks the IMEI of unregistered devices after 120 days, so if you plan to travel there multiple times, you may be out of luck (AFAIK only residents can register their device). So it is definitely worth checking the rules before traveling to a country.

Turkey is an authoritarian country run by a near-dictator, so I'm not sure this is a very good example.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#457

Post by magduf »

woolvalley wrote: post #126
magduf wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Microsoft, it makes good sense for them to not have any support. They can save a lot of money that way, and there's simply no downside. Does it anger customers? Sure, but who cares? It's not like the customers are going to abandon Microsoft. With Google, there is at least a chance they could move to the Apple ecosystem.

Why wouldn't I abandon MSFT? There is google docs, chromebooks and mac os already. Only a small power user use case needs to stick with office specifically nowadays.

Oh, I hear people complain all the time about them and how they're going to switch to Linux (usually because of Win10's spying), but I actually have yet to see anyone make the jump. It's all just hot air.

Anyone who actually would abandon MSFT already did so, many years ago. People who haven't abandoned them by now, will never do so.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#458

Post by bduerst »

1stranger wrote: post #347
bduerst wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're stuck in rural US, then you should use Verizon for it's older CDMA networks. Spending extra money and going through the hassle of getting another phone while traveling is a personal preference it seems, but for people who do travel it's one less thing to worry about.

CDMA is going away. Verizon is supposed to drop 3G by end of this year.

I'll believe it when it happens since Verizon is only leasing the towers in rural areas. Also, just how many accounts on HN do you have?

- tracker1

- 1stranger

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#459

Post by ericthebell »

jasondclinton wrote: post #272
Someone1234 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the whole crux of the issue is that any one Googler wouldn't have enough oversight to answer. Google is too complex of an organization, and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. So issues become lost between CS, security, and accounting. I've seen this from the other side. I've also seen it get mitigated by giving someone (customer service) ownership of the problem, and giving them enough o…

Actually, former Payments Googler here. I have a pretty good idea what could have happened. I will escalate this internally. And no, it shouldn't require a Googler to fix it; something has gone wrong.

Any tips for the rest of us stuck in the same "account suspended without explanation" purgatory? The article describes my own experience since November (and still stuck despite many emails and calls).
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